Top water resource officials vowed Tuesday to channel more than
US$3.6 billion into water-conservation projects nationwide to fight
against acute shortages.
Zhang Jiyao, vice-minister of water resources,
said Tuesday that the money would come from an issue of state
treasury bonds.
Zhang said funds earmarked for the projects, including flood
control and water supply facilities, will be significantly more
than 30 billion yuan (US$3.61 billion).
About 80 percent of such state bond investment has been pledged by
the central government to the construction of large public water
infrastructure, Zhang added.
The message was delivered at a national conference on the planning
and programming of water conservation projects.
Investment priorities will be the protection and rehabilitation of
water resources.
The state will also continue the massive construction of
flood-control facilities that were launched following the
devastating floods in 1998 which killed more than 4,000 people.
Zhang urged those officials responsible for planning and
programming the project to complete key facilities based on the
South-to-North Water Transfer project, which was started in
December.
The project aims to divert water from the Yangtze River to China's
parched northern regions, throwing a lifeline to the fast-growing
economy and relieving the acute water shortage in key cities such
as Beijing and Tianjin.
The central government has poured a record 178.6 billion yuan
(US$21.6 billion) into water conservation projects over the past
five years -- 2.3 times the total investment budgeted between
1949-97.
Jiao Yong, director of the ministry's department of planning and
programming said funds earmarked for water supply projects
increased from only 12.7 percent of the total in 1999 to 29.3
percent last year.
Plans for rehabilitating regional ecosystems that have suffered
degradation will also be carried out in line with other water
diversion projects started in arid-prone northwestern and western
China.
And a group of medium-sized water diversion projects and reservoirs
in provinces suffering from chronic water shortages, including
Liaoning, Gansu and Yunnan, will move closer to reality.
In
rural areas, government investment will be pumped into drinking
water supply projects for about 26 million people in
drought-stricken areas and their livestock.
Water officials have also promised to raise the intensity of
investment in farming irrigation facilities this year to improve
water-use efficiency. This will be achieved through updating
technology and the adoption of water-efficient irrigation
techniques such as spray watering systems.
More than 70 percent of China's water supply is consumed by
agriculture due to low water-use efficiency such as flood
irrigation.
(China Daily February 26, 2003)